This 'n That.....

First off, here's my favorite Challah recipe. Remember, I did NOT come up with this recipe myself, but I unfortunately don't recall the cookbook I obtained it from. I'm sorry. I'm not trying to infringe on any copy-rights. I just don't remember.

Low Cholesterol Challah Recipe

2 pkg dry yeast (or 1 Tbsp, if you buy it by the jars)
2 c warm water (divided)
1/4 c sugar (though I always up it to half a cup, I like my Challah a bit sweet)
1-1/2 tsp salt
7 to 8 c all-purpose flour
2 eggs (divided)
3 Tbsp veggie oil (though, as I'm not cooking Kosher, I usually use unsalted sweet-cream butter)

Proof yeast in 1 cup of the water with about 1 tsp of sugar. Mix remaining sugar, salt & 7 cups of the flour in a large (and I DO mean LARGE) bowl. Pour proofed yeast into well in center of flour mixture and stir into flour. Add 1 of the eggs (beaten) and oil, and knead into flour. More flour may be added as needed. Dump out onto lightly floured surface & knead till dough is (relatively) smooth & elastic. (I never seem to get to that "smooth as a baby's bottom" stage. Even after kneading for 20 minutes the other day, my dough still resembled my cellulite-ridden ass more than it did a baby's smooth bottom. But, as pictured, it rose beautifully anyway.) When dough has been kneaded to as smooth a texture as it will allow, let sit on the floured surface (a kitchen table works well!) while you wash out that bowl & pour in a small amount of oil (not called for in recipe). Pop your dough BACK into your bowl, turn over a couple of times to cover in oil, cover with a clean dish-towel, place in warm spot, and back off for about 2 hours, or till dough has doubled in size.

Now, the origional recipe gave directions for forming this into braids, but that's harder than it looks, and as I said, I'm not making this for Seder, I'm making this for yummy toast in the mornings. So, instead divided the dough into 3 or 4 loaves (as equal in size as you can manage), and place into lightly greased bread pans. Cover & allow to rest for another hour or so, till again doubled (at least) in size. (For a glossy finish, beat that 2nd egg together with about a Tbsp of water & brush over the loaves just before baking.) Bake in 350 deg (farenheit) oven for about 40 minutes, or till bread sounds hollow when you thump it with your fingernail.

There ya are. My favorite Challah recipe. I don't know if it's quite as good as the Challah I remember from those Seder dinners, but it's darn good anyway, and it only uses one egg, so if you don't have many eggs to go around..... No harm done.

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We finished up our Jury Duty today. I don't have to go back tomorrow. Which is kinda bumming me out. I'd taken today and tomorrow (Wed. & Thurs.) off from work so that I could keep those last couple of checks. I'd planned on using both of them to help pay for my class reunion meal tickets in July. Now I won't get but 25 dollars for today, nothing tomorrow. *sigh* I do have to go back in Friday to finish off my work-week. Next week will begin my summer hours without any interuptions. I'll be working Monday through Friday through the summer. I really don't like that. I love my winter hours, when I work Sunday through Thursday, and have Fridays & Saturdays off.

However, we're supposed to have reasonable weather tomorrow, so I'm hoping to get outside (not spend all day online or in front of the TV) and do some gardening around the house. My plans include pulling out the fireweed that's growing in with my chive & rhubarb plants & in the space that I want to plant with sugar-snap peas. We've got a small trellis on the south side of the house that I've planted sugar-snaps against in the past. I didn't do it last year though. I need to get out there tomorrow & weed it out, then get those sugar-snaps planted so I've got a small supply here at home for a few days this summer.

And for the record, I love fireweed. Just not when it's clogging up my chives, my rhubarb, or my sugar-snaps. There are plenty of other spots in the back yard for it to grow. The south side of my house (since it's only a few feet of property on that side) is for these other 3 of my plants.

I'm also hoping to get some shasta daisies planted around the bottom of my scrawny little birch tree in the front yard, and some delphiniums & lupines planted between the windows along the front of the house. I want some flowers, and these are some of the prettier flowers, in my opinion. I may also see about putting in a sunflower or two on the south-east corner of my house. I think that'd be a pretty way to hide that corner of the house. (And it'd be right in front of my sugar-snaps.)

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I sold ANOTHER bag today. I didn't even get this one finished to photograph when one of my fellow jurors mentioned how beautiful she thought the colors were. They were just the sort of colors she always wears. So before I'd even gotten the bag done, she asked if she could buy it from me. Well.... YEAH!!!!! And she also seemed suprised when I told here I was only asking $20 for it. On the other hand, she also said she'd tell her friends who she bought it from, when they ask. *grin* Word of mouth is the BEST kind of advertisement.

And the red, white & blue one sold last week to the other fellow juror who'd mentioned that she liked the colors.

So I've now sold 3 of them, and I haven't even taken any to that gift shop yet. I may just go ahead and hold onto them and sell them to folks who ask me as they see me. When I was at the grocery store last week, the clerk who was ringing my items up mentioned how fantastic she found the idea, and I told her right off that if she wants to buy any, I've got some to sell. I'm keeping them in a big trash bag in the back of my car so that I have them with me.

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Ok, I think that's it for now. Just a bunch of little goings on.

Have a Blessed Day!